Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan (born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American minister who is the current leader of the Nation of Islam, considered to be a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Previously, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and had been appointed National Representative of the Nation of Islam by former NOI leader Elijah Muhammed. Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott in The Bronx, New York, the younger of two sons of Sarah Mae Manning (January 16, 1900 – November 18, 1988) and Percival Clark, immigrants from the Anglo-Caribbean islands. His mother was born in Saint Kitts and Nevis, while his father was Jamaican. The couple separated before their second son was born, and Farrakhan says he never knew his biological father. In a 1996 interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr., he speculated that his father, "Gene", may have been Jewish. After the end of his parents' relationship, his mother moved in with Louis Walcott from Barbados, who became his stepfather. After his stepfather died in 1936, the Walcott family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where they settled in the West Indian neighborhood of Roxbury. Walcott received his first violin at the age of five and by the time he was 12 years old, he had been on tour with the Boston College Orchestra. A year later, he went on to win national competitions. In 1946, he was one of the first black performers to appear on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, where he also won an award. He and his family were active members of the Episcopal St. Cyprian's Church in Roxbury. Walcott attended the Boston Latin School, and later the English High School, from which he graduated. He completed three years at Winston-Salem Teachers College, where he had a track scholarship. Farrakhan is a controversial figure. Often described as a black supremacist, a homophobe, and an anti-semite, he has made hateful and disparaging remarks about Whites, Jews, and the LGBT community on numerous occasions. He is particularly known for his anti-semitism; he has described Adolf Hitler as a "good man" and has referred to Judaism as a "gutter religion". He has accused Jews of manipulating Hollywood, the media, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, and the FBI, as well as being behind the September 11 attacks. People have gone so far as to call him the "Black Hitler" - a name that Farrakhan considers to be praise. He also reportedly has ties to the American Nazi Party. He has also stated that white people "deserve to die". As the leader of NOI, Farrakhan has preached the organization's theology that blacks are superior to whites. He has said whites were created 6,600 years ago as a "race of devils" by an evil scientist named Yakub. Farrakhan has also reportedly been linked to the assassination of former NOI member Malcolm X. He has implied that he was involved varying times over the years, while at the same time denying that he had anything to do with Malcolm X's assassination. Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz, believed that Farrakhan was involved. Farrakhan has also given admiration to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, stating that, when he was killed, that he died "in honor, fighting for the Libya that he believed in." On May 8, 2010, Farrakhan publicly announced his embrace of Dianetics and has actively encouraged Nation of Islam members to undergo auditing from the Church of Scientology. Although he has stressed that he is not a Scientologist, but only a believer in Dianetics and the theories related to it, the Church honored Farrakhan previously during its 2006 Ebony Awakening awards ceremony (which he did not attend). Farrakhan has also urged European Americans to join the Church of Scientology, stating, "All white people should flock to founder L. Ron Hubbard. You can still be a Christian; you just won't be a devil Christian. You can still be a Jew, but you won't be a satanic Jew." Since the announcement in 2010, the Nation of Islam has been hosting its own Dianetic courses and its own graduation ceremonies. At the third such ceremony, which was held on Saviours Day 2013, it was announced that nearly 8,500 members of the organisation had undergone Dianetic auditing. The Organisation announced it had graduated 1,055 auditors and had delivered 82,424 hours of auditing. The graduation ceremony was certified by the Church of Scientology, and the Nation of Islam members received official certification. The ceremony was attended by Shane Woodruff, vice-president of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International. He stated that "The unfolding story of the Nation of Islam and Dianetics is bold, it is determined and it is absolutely committed to restoring freedom and wiping hell from the face of this planet." 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